Phobiamurderer
by dunkelzeichner
Summary: Zack is a murderer. That is the message that makes Kacy to fly to Washington DC. She wants to proove his innocence, but how will the team react? And what about the strange corpses they find? Englisch version of my Fanfiction "Phobienmörder"
1. Prologue

Prologue

Did she have all she needed? The young woman looked around, took a quick glance into her closet and then into her suitcase. Yes, apparently there was nothing important left to pack. She closed her suitcase quickly and lifted it from her bed, pulled it to the corridor of her flat. Again she looked around. She gulped. She wasn't sure (remove) at all, when she would enter her flat for the next time. Maybe it would be a few weeks, or months, or days. She might even not return at all. She didn't even know if it was a good idea to leave this flat. Once more she went through all of the rooms. All of the plugs were pulled, the backups too. She could go.

Taking a deep breath she opened the door and pulled her suitcase through it, her shoulder bag dangling with every step she made. After she locked the door, she stowed the key in her bag and left the building.

The cab waited outside, and the driver lifted her case into the trunk while she took (place at)-change to: a seat in the front passenger seat.

"To the airport," she said brusquely, not looking at the driver.

He stepped on the gas and the car rapidly approached the airport. As they arrived there, she squeezed the money and a small tip into his hand, lifted her suitcase out of the trunk by herself and rushed into the hallway.

___________

Two hours later she sat in her window seat in the plane, tucking her shoulder bag under the seat in front of her. She looked out of the window. Her family would have declared her as insane if she had told the truth about her sudden trip to Washington. Well, she _had_ told the truth, just not the whole truth. Her mother wouldn't understand. But, then, she doubted that her mother even understood any of the decisions she had made in her life.

She took a deep breath and tried to relax a bit, but it wasn't really successful. He was a murderer. The young woman shook her head. That couldn't be. He wasn't a murderer; he was too kind and too timid to resort to violence at all. She gulped. No, he wasn't a murderer. And she would prove it. Never mind the expense, she would prove it. (Well, she wasn't stupid, if she hadn't a clue yet, she wouldn't sit in this airplane and wait for its start. She sat here 26 times before and every time she had been smiling. I don't quite understand what you're trying to say here.) Actually, it meant something like a little vacation for her to sit here and fly away. But this time it wouldn't be a vacation. And this time there wouldn't be somebody at the airport to pick her up.

The words of the stewardess fell upon deaf ears. They were always the same words for the every flight. But this wasn't just any other flight. This time it wasn't at 5 o'clock on Friday afternoon. It was Monday, 6 o'clock in the morning and the rain had begun to drum against the windows. Over the next two hours, the plane would fly the 592 miles from Montreal to Washington DC. She leaned back. It would be the right decision. She wouldn't regret it later. She would help him. He was her priority. The plane droned as it lifted off. She closed her eyes and let the sound lull her. Zack.


	2. The new one

Chapter One – The new one

~ three weeks later ~

Sometimes she was too predictable. Angela stood there so that she could take a look into Bones' office, but still out of sight from her best friend. She had known the anthropologist for a long time and, ever since the truth had been revealed, she had been worried that it would come to this.

Since they had captured Zack as the apprentice of Gormogon, it had been even more difficult to get Temperance out of the Jeffersonian Institute. It seemed that she tried to bury all of her doubts and disappointment with work. At the moment, Brennan was filling out a document that would be later needed for a man's death certificate. The remains were still lying on the table at their working platform.

Angela took a look at the file in her hands and sighed quietly. She didn't want to know how Tempe would react if she heard that Dr. Goodman hired a new anthropologist to take Zack's place. Apparently he knew why Angela should be the one to get this message to Bones. But she had to tell it to her now, because a glimpse at the clock said that the new team member would arrive in 10 minutes and Angela also didn't want that the first thing she saw was one of Dr. Brennan's rare fury attacks. That would be a pretty bad start.

She stepped closer to the half-opened door of the office and knocked slightly.

"Hi Sweetie," she said with a calm voice and a smile, looking at Bones.

Brennan, who had still been hunkered over the document, now stopped and looked to Angela. She answered the smile with one of her own, but Angela had to admit that the anthropologist looked pale. She had clearly worked too much without a break for the last three weeks. But she didn't say anything about it.

"Something new, Ange? Or does Booth just need somebody for field investigation?" asked the brunette woman while her eyes focused the folder in Angelas hands.

Her best friend shook her head and stepped closer, laying the file down on Temperance's desk, rotating it so that she could read what was written on it: Application, forensic anthropology, K. Hobbes.

Her eyebrows grew together and looked angry.

"He's just away for three weeks and Goodman announced his job to the public?" Her voice sounded disgusted and that was exactly how she felt. She didn't want an alternate for Zack just as Jack didn't want one either. The artist tried to pacify her with a smile.

"Just take a look at it, come on.", she tried to convince her counterpart.

Temperance unwillingly grabbed the file. She leaned back in her chair and took a second look at the label before she opened it. Temperance glanced at the curriculum vita: Single child, studied in Montreal, one doctor's degree. Sounded pretty normal for someone who made an application at the Jeffersonian. It was the applicant's age that led Bones to immediately think of Zack. Twenty four. Exactly his age Zack had been when she hired him as her assistant.

The young woman who applied was one of the smart ones. A photograph was placed between the next two pages. The woman in it looked as if her thoughts were miles away.. No, Bones didn't want an alternate for Zack.

Temperance closed the folder and laid it back on the table.

"If she's waiting here, tell her that she can go home." Her voice sounded cold as she turned her attention back to her document. Angela took the file back and sighed. She searched for words to tell her that her rejection had no weight this time. But she couldn't find the words.

"I'm sorry Dr. Brennan, but I won't go home." A calm female voice said from the main room.

Abruptly, Bones looked up, first at Angela and than at the door of her office. Only the team had access to here, except Dr. Goodman and special exceptions in cases of emergency. And without an ID-card nobody could enter these rooms without being noticed. The two women could hear footsteps coming closer and finally the young woman of the picture entered Bones' office.

Even at first glance, it was clear that this wasn't her natural hair colour, but the dark cherry red fitted her very well and let her green eyes look even more intensive. Her face was symmetric and smooth, something that reminded Bones of fantastical creatures like elves. Even though 24 was pretty young, she appeared even younger. Her clothes were, in comparison to her hair and eyes, nearly colourless. The grey turtleneck seemed to be one size to big and fell over her black jeans.

The anthropologist cleared her throat. "I assume you're Miss Hobbes?" she asked even if she knew the answer, after all the young woman in front of her reacted to her rejection.

"Yes, that is correct. I don't think that you're denying my application because of lack of skills. You don't want a new member in your team." She said calmly, causing Bones to bristle with anger.

Well, she must admit that the woman's qualifications were indeed pretty good but Miss Hobbes' second sentence hit the spot. How did she know? Bones thought to herself. It hadn't been made public that the Jeffersonian lost one worker to the Gormogon. After a moment of silence she found a logical sounding explanation. Presumably Dr. Goodman warned her that Bones wouldn't want her.

"Listen, I appreciate your—" she began, but she was never able to finish her sentence because the redhead had grabbed the file and opened it on the last page.

"I don't get it! How could he?"

Temperence gasped.

___________

It was clear to hear that the anthropologist was pretty angry. She stood on the platform, with the rest of the team, though there were no remains laying on the table.

Jack didn't seem to be very encouraged by the idea that someone new had been hired for their team without asking them, since there were usually no decisions made without the team, or at least without Dr. Brennan. Angela had to convince Bones not to storm into Dr. Goodman's office to let him know her opinion about his newest decision.

Cam broke the silence hanging in the room.

"Well, just look. We can't burden you and Jack with more work for long. Life goes on."

She didn't speak any farther. The looks Hodgins and his boss were giving her spoke volumes. She lifted her hands in surrender and then left for her office

"By the way, where is she?" asked Booth and searched the room with his eyes.

"I'm here." answered the red haired woman while she stepped into the main room and entered the platform with her ID-Card.

This was the second time she answered a question without being in the same room. Bones didn't lose the feeling that this new person liked to eavesdrop. She definitely belonged to the taller group of women. Even without heels on, she was as tall as Angela was with heels. And it was Bones' best friend who made the first introduction.

She smiled calmly and shook hands with the young woman.

"Hi, I'm Angela Montenegro. I do facial reconstructions," she said.

"Special Agent Seeley Booth from the FBI," Booth introduced. Then it was Jacks turn for introduction.

"Dr. Jack Hodgins. Entomologist. I work in the labs." He said curtly, sounding as if he wanted to mark the labs clearly as his territory. The red head stepped back and looked in the round just for a moment before she introduced herself.

"My name is Dr. Kassandra Hobbes. But everybody calls me Kacy."


End file.
